Photographer's Note

Oland windmill, Skansen, Stockholm

Skansen is an open air museum on the island of Djurgarden. It includes 150 historic buildings from various parts of Sweden, including this traditional wooden windmill typical of Oland, Sweden's largest island.

The Skansen

The Skansen museum in Stockholm is the world’s oldest open-air museum. At the Skansen museum, you will find the history of Sweden shown both in historical buildings as well as intriguing crafts displays. Every part of Sweden is represented at the Skansen museum, from a southern farm on Skåne to the Sami camp in northern Sweden. The museum takes you back to a Sweden before our time. Most buildings and farmsteads at Skansen museum are from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.
Skansen attracts more than 1.3 million visitors each year. The many exhibits over the 75 acre (300,000 m²) site include a full replica of an average 19th-century town, in which craftsmen in traditional dress such as tanners, shoemakers, silversmiths, bakers and glass-blowers demonstrate their skills in period surroundings. There is even a small patch growing tobacco used for the making of cigarettes. There is also an open-air zoo containing a wide range of Scandinavian animals including the bison, brown bear, moose, grey seal, lynx, otter, red fox, reindeer, wolf, and wolverine (as well as some non-Scandinavian animals due to their popularity). There are also farmsteads where rare breeds of farm animals can be seen.
In early December the site's central Bollnäs square is host to a popular Christmas market that has been held since 1903, attracting around 25,000 visitors each weekend. In the summer there are displays of folk dancing and concerts.

History

The 19th century was a period of great change throughout Europe and Sweden was no exception. Its rural way of life was rapidly giving way to an industrialised society and many feared that the country's many traditional customs and occupations may be lost to history. Artur Hazelius, who had previously founded the Nordic Museum on the island of Djurgården near the centre of Stockholm, was inspired by the open-air museum founded by King Oscar II in Kristiania in 1881 when he created his open-air museum on the hill that dominates the island. Skansen became the model for other early open-air museums in Scandinavia and later ones elsewhere. The name "Skansen" has also been used as a noun to refer to other open-air museums and collections of historic structures, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, but also in the United States, e.g. Old World Wisconsin and Fairplay, Colorado.
Skansen was originally a part of the Nordic Museum, but became an independent organisation in 1963. The objects in the Skansen buildings are still the property of the Nordic Museum.
After extensive travelling, Hazelius bought around 150 houses from all over the country (as well as one structure from Telemark in Norway) and had them shipped piece by piece to the museum, where they were rebuilt to provide a unique picture of traditional Sweden. Only three of the buildings in the museum are not original, and were painstakingly copied from examples he had found. All of the buildings are open to visitors and show the full range of Swedish life from the Skogaholm Manor house built in 1680, to the 16th century Älvros farmhouses. (Source: Skansen/Stockholm & wikipedia)

Almost has every country his own wind mill type, this is truly a type out of Sweden long time ago.
Happy that we get the open air museums for showing the old time.
Very well presentation, excellent captured.
Nice done, TFS.

In an open air museum, one can learn the history of the country by seeing the historical buildings and other craft items on display. Here you have shown us a bit of the museum with the charming wooden windmill which is very typical Swedish. It stands out well amidst the greenery. The blue sky makes a nice background.

Hello George,
very nice composition of skansen, old windmill and surroundings against fabulous sky, wonderfully captured image. The superb color, sharpness, Exposition, contrast, very good point of view. Carefully made and perfect clarity. I like very much. Thanks for sharing.
Best regards,
Barabara

Hi György, a good photo of this interesting and beautiful mill, a nice and interesting composition well framed, excellent clarity, depth and color. Very good and lovely job well done, congratulations my friend. Tfs.

Hello George,
The framing is good with the sunny facade of the mill. It's a nice overview of this outdoor museum. The sky is beautiful. The light, colors and sharpness are excellent. Bravo.
Have a nice day
Cordially
Joël

Great shot!
Another wonderful fantastic framework shot!
Widefocus appraocg makes impressive effect verys much .
Reasonable framework and perfect composition you captured.
Thanks for your sharing with your good job and have a good day, best regards,

Good morning George,
nice the view as the placement of Oland wooden windmill in the frame with the other construction on the middle of the scene to be balanced perfect the image.The place must be interest as someone can see a lot of things in the open air museum.

Hi George
A lovely composition, and you have captured great depth in this shot and I like how the windmill balances the rest of the image. The crisp clean also adds to the clarity in all parts of the image and the tones are delicate and very pretty. A very beautifully captured shot, Congrats.
Best regards